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22 March 2001 EU delegation Press Briefing on FYROM Talks Javier Solana, High Representative for Common Foreign and
Security Policy for the European Union Anna Lindh, Foreign Minister of Sweden We will have a very brief press conference as we are going back to the
European Council in Stockholm. In the European Council tomorrow we will of
course discuss the Balkans and we will also discuss the situation in
Macedonia, which we find very worrying, and we have also visited Macedonia
earlier today. We then had a very interesting meeting here, discussing the
situation both in Macedonia and here and we hope that we will before the
meeting tomorrow of the European Council also have a clear commitment from
the Albanian leaders here, also to urge the violence to stop in
Macedonia. Javier Solana, High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy for the European Union For me as you can imagine it is a great pleasure to be back here in Kosovo. We had a very good meeting with Hans Haekkerup, an old friend, who has taken the responsibility of UNMIK and is doing a very good job. We had also the possibility of talking and lengthy with the COMKFOR and with the leaders of Pristina. I would like to say, as the minister has said, we are coming from Macedonia and we are concerned about the evolution of the situation and we wanted to share these ideas with the leaders of Pristina and also with Hans Haekkerup and with the general. We are going to continue working together to see how among us we can create conditions so that in the 21st century nothing in this region, nothing in this part of Europe, is obtained through violence. Everything has to be obtained through democratic means and that is the message that we bring and that is our endeavour. We are going to have a European Council in the coming days and this will be a very clear message that will come out. Christopher Patten, EU Commissioner for External Relations This is the eighth visit that I have paid to Kosovo. When I came for the first time with Javier Solana, we made it clear that Europe wanted to enter into, as it were a contract with the people of Kosovo. We wanted to help them build a decent democratic, free, prosperous society in return for their commitment to decency and democracy. Since then we have committed and spent a large part of over 1.5 billion DM in reconstruction in Kosovo. I very much hope that we will be able to continue to say that the Albanian leaders of Kosovo are committed to decency and democracy. I hope that we will be able to hear from them not just once but regularly condemnations of violence and condemnations of those who seek to resolve political arguments through extremism, through bullets and bombs rather than through the democratic process and dialogue. SRSG Hans Haekkerup I also think it is very important in this situation that the political leaders in Kosovo come out in a very clear language on the situation in Macedonia. I think Kosovo is being judged by the international society on how we do respond to the situation there and we have to distance ourselves from extremist activities and certainly support the efforts to find political settlement for what is going on. I think it is very important that Kosovars themselves express this in clear language. Questions Q: There is obviously a sense of déjà vu about this, which I am sure you will all agree. But it seems to me that there is no big idea here that the history of what happened in Kosovo was a series of small fixes that came too little too late. It is all very admirable what is going on here, but where is the big plan? CP: Sure it is a question from BBC. The big plan? Well some times I am overwhelmed by the wisdom and advice of other people. The big plan is to continue to support those in this part of Europe who believed in the same sort of values that helped to rescue the rest of Europe from misery, bloodshed and disaster in the last half of the last century. What we have been trying to do here in Kosovo, what we have been trying to do right across the region is to support those who are committed as we are in the European Union to democracy, the rule of law and decency and we will go on asserting those principles and we will go on supporting those principles and we will go on denouncing those from whatever community they come from, we will go on denouncing those who won't stand up for those principles. JS: And if I may say, the big plan of the European Union has been established in a very clear manner in November when we met in Zagreb with all the leaders of the countries of the region. We gave a European perspective and some principles, some behaviours to which the leaders committed to. So the big plan, which is an addition of small plans, is not a big plan, which is cosmological. The big plan as you know very well is an addition of small plans. In Zagreb in the summit of the European Union, the 15 leaders of the European Union have clearly stated that. AL: And I think it was clear last Monday when the General Affairs Council met and the Foreign ministers met that there was a package both concerning security and what could be done with the security, some countries - among them my own country Sweden - deciding already today to increase the number of troops we are sending to KFOR. From our part it is 200 from Sweden. If other member states do the same it will be quite a big increase. We also have an economic part, which I think the Commission has clearly described with all the efforts done in the region, and they have as well also a political part with a support of peaceful solutions in the region. Just Monday, we had the political, the economic as well as the security described when the Ministers of Foreign Affairs met. Q: A question first to Mr. Solana. Can you tell us a little bit about how your meetings went with the Macedonian government today? Have you felt like you have made any progress, did you push them at all in the direction that you feel will ensure the resumption of a cease-fire or moves us back in that direction? And for Mr. Patten, I take your remarks as kind of an implicit threat that may be the contract that you signed with Kosovo is not being kept at this end. I am wondering if you could elaborate on that just a little bit. The reason I asked is that if there is a link here between what has happened here and the violence in Macedonia, it really seems to be there is a small number of people who might be implicated in this in some direct way and if you have information otherwise, I would like to hear what that is? JS: The meeting today in Macedonia and in Skopje has been a very good meeting. We have met once again with all the leaders of the country and also the leaders of the opposition. As you know, the President of the Republic has accepted to incorporate all the political parties into the National Security Council that will take place for the first time only today. You also know the true political parties that belong to the Albanian community have signed a very committing statement saying what type of country they want to have, a country in which the demands are obtained by democratic means and no by any other means. As you know, tomorrow the President of Macedonia will be sharing with the 15 leaders of the European Union a discussion in Stockholm. So in a very few days, yesterday, today, tomorrow we are going to show the commitment that we have to Macedonia because we think it is an important country, a country that has to resolve the problem that we have today and resolve it in a peaceful manner. That is the message that we have received also from the leaders from the community and again, I like to tell you that all the political parties are behind the same idea and as such the President has invited and they have accepted to participate in the National Security Council, all of them including the Albanians to the component of the civil society. CP: I have never threatened anyone, but I am pretty good at spotting political reality when it comes around the corner and clobbers me. I invite you to answer this question: How would you expect me to justify to Europe's tax payers, to Europe's Parliamentarians to Europe's media the argument that we should invest large sums of money in a community if the leaders of its political parties are not committed at the principles which we thought we were here to support? It is a very simple issue. It couldn't be clearer and if you have got an answer as to how I manage to put that case convincingly - if I need to put that case - perhaps you could write it on the back of an envelope. |